Cartabia: “In the prison of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, senseless use of force”

“They were made serious” those of Santa Maria Capua Vetere with a “senseless and boundless use of force”. Thus the Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia, in the chamber of the Chamber, during the information on what happened in the Campania prison. Facts that “call for a broad investigation, so that we know what has happened in the institutions in the last year, when the pandemic has exacerbated everything”, he then stressed announcing that “we have set up an inspection commission in the Dap that will visit all the prisons concerned from the protests “. “From the investigative documents it emerges that in Santa Maria Capua Vetere it was not a reaction to riots, but cold violence”, said the minister. “At present, the overall total of the Administration personnel units suspended for various reasons is equal to 75. Other suspects remain, for which the investigating judge has specified that there is no certainty of their presence. This is why he rejected the request. of precautionary measures. On the latter, we await the developments of the investigation, before other evaluations “, the Inspection Commission explained,” will visit all prisons affected by protests or complaints or reports relating to serious events which occurred in March 2020. Its mandate consists in investigating the dynamics of the facts, in order to ascertain the legitimacy and correctness of every initiative adopted. “The prison administration – warned Cartabia – must be able to investigate internally . It must understand and be itself capable of bringing to light any violations. The facts of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, which emerged only following the acts of the judicial authority, show that this capacity for internal investigation was lacking at least on this occasion “.” If we want to take on the evils of prison to the end, why not never repeat episodes of violence, it is necessary to prepare a strategy that operates on several levels and in particular by acting on material structures, personnel and their training “, he outlined.” It would be much easier for everyone to speak generically of ‘bad apples’ and to move on. If the criminal responsibilities, I repeat, are always and only individual and cannot fall on anyone else, least of all on the entire body of the prison administration, the ‘political’ responsibilities of the incident – underlined the minister – also reside in the carelessness with which for years the conditions of those in prison and of those who work in prison have been allowed to worsen “.